On 9 October 2023,Israel intensified itsblockade of the Gaza Strip when it announced a "total blockade", blocking the entry of food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity after theOctober 7 attacks and the ensuingGaza war.[1][2] The blockade has been credited with contributing significantly to theGaza genocide.[3][4][5] Israel has conditioned its lifting of the blockade with the return of thehostages abducted by Hamas,[6] which has been criticized ascollective punishment and an apparentwar crime.[7][8][9] As of August 2025, 27 European countries and over 100 international aid organizations have called for an end to Israel's blockade of aid into Gaza.[10][11]
A few weeks after 9 October 2023, Israel eased the complete blockade, but still continued to severely restrict the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip. The first supplies entered on 21 October 2023.[12] The blockade exacerbated Gaza'shumanitarian crisis.[13] In January 2024, Israeli authorities blocked 56% of humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.[14] On 9 February 2024,UNRWA's directorPhilippe Lazzarini said that Israel had blocked food for 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza.[15]
During theJanuary 2025 Gaza war ceasefire, Israel relaxed aid restrictions, allowing much more aid than previously.[16] On 2 March 2025, however, Israel completely blocked all supplies from entering the territory, making it the longest complete closure in the history of the blockade.[16][17] Since 26 May 2025, theUnited States- and Israeli-backedGaza Humanitarian Foundation has facilitated limited and largely ineffective aid distribution, marred bymass killings that resulted in over 1,400 Palestinian deaths.[18]
The restrictions on movement and goods inGaza imposed byIsrael date to the early 1990s.[22] AfterHamas took over in 2007, Israel significantly intensified existing movement restrictions and imposed a completeblockade on the movement of goods and people in and out of theGaza Strip.[23] In the same year, Egypt closed theRafah border crossing.[22]
The blockade's stated aim's are to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza and to exert economic pressure on Hamas.[22] Human rights groups have called the blockade illegal and a form ofcollective punishment, as it restricts the flow of essential goods, contributes to economic hardship, and limits Gazans'freedom of movement.[23][24] The land, sea and air blockade virtually isolated the Gaza Strip from the rest of theoccupied Palestinian territory and the world. The blockade and its effects have led to the territory being called an "open-air prison".[25][26]
On 7 October 2023, 6,000 Palestinian militants led by Hamas, a Palestinian political and military organization and other Palestinian groups, launched itsbiggest assault across theGaza–Israel barrier into southern Israel, breaching the border in 119 places, infiltrating Israel and killing 1,175 Israelis and foreigners,[30] as well as firing at least 4,300 rockets into Israel.[31][32][33][34] Israel subsequently declared war on the militants,[35] calling up 300,000reservists to execute Israel's military operation.[36]
Blockade
A total blockade of the Gaza Strip was announced on 9 October 2023 by theDefence Minister of Israel,Yoav Gallant. "We are putting a complete siege on Gaza … No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed" he announced.[2][37] "We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly," he added.[38][39][40] The spokesman for theMinister of Energy of Israel,Israel Katz, said that Katz had ordered the water supply to the Gaza Strip to be cut, effective immediately.[41] Israeli tanks and drones have been tasked with guarding openings in the Gaza–Israel border fence and enforcing the blockade.[2]
As a result of the blockade, the only power plant in the Gaza Strip ran out of fuel on 11 October, at 2 pm.[42][43] This caused the electricity in the Gaza Strip to go off.[43] Due to this, desalination plants providing water shut off, completely stopping running water.[44]
On 12 October 2023, Israel Katz, stated that the lifting of the Gaza Strip blockade would not occur until thehostages were safely returned to Israel.[6]
After receiving pressure from U.S. PresidentJoe Biden, Gallant changed his position of a complete blockade and a deal was made on 19 October for Israel and Egypt to allow aid into Gaza.[46]
In January 2024, Israeli authorities blocked 56% of humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.[14] On 31 January 2024, National Security MinisterItamar Ben-Gvir called on Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu to cease sending aid to Gaza.[47] On 1 February, after being barred from the Gaza border, protesters blocked aid trucks from leaving thePort of Ashdod.[48]
On 9 February 2024, UNRWA's directorPhilippe Lazzarini said that Israel had blocked food for 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza.[15] In October 2024, the United Nations found that Israel had arbitrarily blocked 83% of aid entering Gaza in the prior year.[49]
After theJanuary 2025 Gaza war ceasefire went into effect on 19 January 2025, Israel loosened restrictions on the entry of food, water, tents and other humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip.[50] However, the director of theWorld Food Programme said that some Israeli restrictions remained.[50] Israel also restricted the number of Palestinians who could leave Gaza to seek medical treatment abroad. While the agreement stipulated 150 Palestinian patients be allowed to leave per day, Israel further restricted the number of sick people given permit to leave.[51][52][53] Among the patients prohibited from travelling was a child withcancer.[51]
On 2 March 2025, Israel ceased the entry of aid to Gaza.[54] The humanitarian aid blockade was condemned by mediators Egypt and Qatar, as well as theUnited Nations, as a violation of the ceasefire.[55] On 9 March, Israeli energy ministerEli Cohen ordered to halt supply of Israeli electricity to Gaza.[56] In April 2025, Israeli Defense MinisterIsrael Katz expressed support for the blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza, stating, "Israel's policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population."[57] As of 2 May 2025, it was the longest complete closure in the history of Israel's blockade.[17]
Crossings
Israelis blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, February 2024
Most aid vehicles come through this crossing from Egypt. This was the first crossing to reopen after the start of the war, on 21 October.[12] Between then and 31 October 241 aid trucks passed through.[58] Egypt, fearing a great influx of Gazans intoSinai implemented strict policies in Rafah crossing.[59] On 27 October,Cindy McCain, director of theWorld Food Program, criticized the checks at the Egyptian side of the crossing as "overly stringent" and limiting the flow of aid, which had previously been closer to 500 trucks a day.[60]
This was one of the crossings breached at the start of the war, and remained closed thereafter. On 30 October, the UN asked Israel to reopen it to allow additional aid trucks through.[61] On 3 November it was opened briefly, so that Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip who had been staying in Israel on work permits could be sent back to the Gaza Strip.[62]
The crossing was reopened on 17 December 2023 for allowing 100 UN aid trucks daily in order to abide by an agreement made during the hostages-for-prisoners exchanges, with 100 trucks of humanitarian aid being allowed through daily .[63][64][65]
Israeli protesters accusing Israel of helping its enemy and harming own troops, repeatedly blocked the Kerem Shalom crossing to prevent humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip.[66][67] On 21 December 2023, Israeli protesters attempted to block the Kerem Shalom crossing to prevent humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip.[68] On 6 February,Channel 12 reported that 132 aid trucks had been prevented from entering the Kerem Shalom border crossing.[69] On 7 February, Israelis set up tents at the Kerem Shalom to block aid from entering Gaza.[70][71]
On 16 November 2024,armed gangs raided a convoy of 109 UN aid trucks and looted 98 of them, near Israeli military installations at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. The perpetrators, who according to a UN memo may have had "protection" from theIsraeli Defense Forces (IDF), threw grenades and held truck drivers at gunpoint, forcing them to unload their aid. The UN also reported that a gang leader had established a "military-like compound" in an area that was "restricted, controlled, and patrolled by the IDF".[72] The looting has been described by theUNRWA as "one of the worst" incidents of its kind.[73][74][75]
Other crossings
On 2 February, Israeli protesters blocked theNitzana Border Crossing between Egypt and Israel to prevent humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.[20]
Two Jordanian aid convoys headed towards the Gaza Strip carrying medical supplies and flour were attacked by Israeli settlers on 1 May.[21]
Israel reopened theKissufim crossing on 12 November 2024 in response to US demands to open another crossing into the Gaza Strip. The demands were intended to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.[76][77]
Theceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on 10 October 2025.[78] Under the ceasefire terms, Israel was to permit up to 600 humanitarian aid trucks to enter Gaza each day. Since then, the limit has been reduced to 300, with Israeli officials attributing the change to delays in recovering the bodies of Israeli hostages believed to be buried beneath rubble from Israeli strikes.[79] Data from the UN2720 Monitoring and Tracking Dashboard, which records the movement of humanitarian convoys entering Gaza, showed that between 10 and 16 October, only 216 trucks reached their intended destinations within Gaza.[79]
The blockade resulted in a 90% drop in electricity availability, impacting hospital power supplies, sewage plants, and shutting down desalination plants that provide drinking water.[80] According to WHO, 27 out of 35 hospitals in the Gaza Strip were shut down by 23 November 2023.[81]
On 17 November,Oxfam stated Gaza's water supply was at 17% of its pre-siege capacity.[82] On 7 December, the World Health Organization reported increases in acute respiratory infections,scabies,jaundice, anddiarrhea.[83]
On 7 December 2023, theWorld Food Programme stated that 97% of households had inadequate food consumption and 83% in southern Gaza were surviving through "extreme consumption strategies."[84] On 15 December, the United Nations estimated nine out of ten residents were not eating food every day.[85] On 22 December,UNICEF warned of the increasingly growing threat offamine in the Gaza Strip.[86]
Direct attacks on telecommunications infrastructure by Israel, electricity blockades and fuel shortages have caused the near-total collapse of Gaza's largest cell network providers.[87][88][89] Lack of internet access has obstructed Gazan citizens from communicating with loved ones, learning of IDF operations, and identifying both the areas most exposed to bombing and possible escape routes.[87] The blackouts have also impeded emergency services, making it more difficult to locate and access the time-critical injured, and have impeded humanitarian aid agencies and journalists as well.[87] By December 2023 200,000 Gazans (approximately 10% of the population) had received internet access through an eSIM provided byConnecting Humanity.[90]
In May 2025, it was announced that prices had skyrocketed for basic food stuffs at markets in Gaza with a 25 kg (55 lb) bag of flour priced at $415 (£313) in Gaza City, a 30 fold increase since the end of February 2025.[91]
Famine
The Israel–Hamas war has led to high risk offamine conditions in theGaza Strip, resulting fromIsraeli airstrikes and the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel, which includes restrictions onhumanitarian aid.[19][92][93] In early 2024, 2.2 million people in Gaza are were experiencing food insecurity at emergency level.[94]
4-year-old Palestinian girl who died of malnutrition
Airstrikes have destroyed food infrastructure, such as bakeries, mills, and food stores, and there is a widespread scarcity of essential supplies due to the blockade ofaid.[a] This has caused starvation for more than half a million Gazans and is part of a broaderhumanitarian crisis in the Strip.[93] It is the "highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger" ever recorded on theIPC scale,[93] and is widely expected to be the most intense man-made famine since theSecond World War.[19][96][97]
With 53% of the population, equivalent to 1.17 million individuals, facing emergency levels of starvation, the region is experiencing alarming rates of malnutrition and loss of lives. Due to the prevailing security conditions, providing a substantial humanitarian response has become exceedingly challenging. It is crucially important to establish a consistent and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza to address the urgent needs of its population.[94]
Water crisis
In July 2025, Gaza was facing a severewater crisis, worsened by bombings and fuel shortages that have crippled infrastructure.[98] According to a recent report by theUN humanitarian agencyOCHA, Gaza’s ongoing lack of clean water—after 21 months of war and four months of blockade—was already having severe consequences for public health.[99] Many residents must walk long distances in extreme heat to collect a few liters of drinking water, enduring constant thirst amid the destruction.[98] Pregnant women often lived in overcrowded shelters with little access to clean water or medical care, leaving high-risk pregnancies undetected.[100] Journalists reported widespread illness and exhaustion due to hunger anddehydration.[101]Oxfam warned of a sharp rise inwaterborne diseases and a looming humanitarian disaster if urgent action was not taken.[102]
UN Special RapporteurFrancesca Albanese expressed concern that "the measures taken, including the bombing of the Rafah crossing, hints to an intention to really starve and kill the people who are innocent inside the Gaza Strip," saying there was fear among Palestinians in Gaza of a "secondNakba."[105]
UN Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres said he was "deeply distressed" by Israel's decision to impose a total blockade on the Gaza Strip.[8]
Jan Egeland, the Secretary General for theNorwegian Refugee Council, stated that "collective punishment is in violation of international law. If and when it would lead to wounded children dying in hospitals because of a lack of energy, electricity and supplies, it could amount towar crime."[8]
On 10 October 2023,European Union's High Representative for Foreign AffairsJosep Borrell said that "cutting water, cutting electricity, cutting food to a mass of civilian people, is against international law."[106]
On 11 October 2023, Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Israel's blockade and bombing of Gaza in retaliation for Hamas' attack was a disproportionate response amounting to a "massacre."[107]
UNRWA's director,Philippe Lazzarini, described the Gaza Strip as a "graveyard of a population trapped between war, siege and deprivation", saying that "We will not be able to say we did not know. History will ask why the world did not have the courage to act decisively and stop this hell on Earth."[108]
Egyptian authorities tried to prevent a mass exodus of Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip towards the Sinai Peninsula, rejecting a United States proposal for safe corridors to Egypt for Palestinians fleeing the Gaza Strip. TheRafah Border Crossing on theEgypt–Gaza border was closed by Egypt after the start of the conflict.[109] Egypt urged Israel to allow safe passage for Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip instead of forcing them to flee towards Sinai.[110]
Fabrizio Carboni, theInternational Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC) director for the Middle East, said that "Without electricity, hospitals [in Gaza] risk turning into morgues."[111]
Palestinian child clutching a precious gas canister during the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, December 8, 2024
According toHuman Rights Watch, "Israel's Minister of Energy and Infrastructure has made it clear the recent Hamas attacks are 'why we decided to stop the flow of water, electricity and fuel'. These tactics are war crimes, as is using starvation as a weapon of war."[111] A spokesperson forGisha, an Israeli human rights group, said there was no "justification for this kind of targeting of civilians".[44]
British politician and Leader of theLabour Party,Keir Starmer, announced his support for Israel's "right" to totally cut power and water supplies to the Gaza Strip in an interview withLBC,[112] prompting theLabour Muslim Network to describe his comments as endorsing "collective punishment" and demand an apology from him.[113] The Mayor of LondonSadiq Khan urged Israel to exercise restraint, arguing that a blockade of the Gaza Strip could lead to suffering of Palestinian civilians.[114]
Agnès Callamard, secretary ofAmnesty International said that Israeli authorities should immediately stop the increased restrictions, including cutting off electricity, water, and food. She stated that the blackout would have a severe effect on access to clean water, communications and internet access, and public health.[116]
On 18 October, the United Statesvetoed aUN Security Council resolution, sponsored byBrazil and supported by 12 of the 15 Council members, calling for "humanitarian pauses" to deliver aid to Gazan civilians.[117] The US Ambassador to the UNLinda Thomas-Greenfield explained that the US was working on a diplomatic resolution to the humanitarian crisis, and the resolution failed to recognize Israel's right to self-defense.[118][119]
On 21 October, the Israeli army dropped leaflets in Gaza with the message: "Urgent warning! To the residents of Gaza: your presence to the North ofWadi Gaza is putting your lives at risk. Anyone who chooses not to evacuate from the North of the Gaza Strip to the South of the Gaza Strip may be identified as a partner in a terrorist organization."[120][121]
On 9 January 2024, British Foreign SecretaryDavid Cameron admitted he is "worried" that Israel has "taken action that might be in breach of international law", saying he wanted Israel to restore water supplies to Gaza.[124]
On 17 March 2025, in response to questions asked to him in theHouse of Commons, British Foreign SecretaryDavid Lammy twice stated that Israel's blockade of humanitarian supplies into Gaza was a "breach" of international law.[125] He said that "Israel, quite rightly, must defend its own security, but we find the lack of aid – and it has now been 15 days since aid got into Gaza – unacceptable, hugely alarming and very worrying."[126] However, Prime MinisterKeir Starmer's office publicly rejected Lammy's statement that Israel had breached international law by blocking Gaza. Starmer's office stated that it was up to the Foreign Office to decide whether Lammy should apologise for his criticism of Israel.[127] On 18 March 2025, Lammy toldBloomberg it was a "matter for the court" to decide if Israel had breached international law.[128]
In May 2025, Australian Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese echoed criticisms from other Western nations in demanding Israel allow the supply of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, condemning Israel's actions as "completely unacceptable" and an "outrage".[130] However, he opposedsanctions against Israel over the blockade of Gaza, saying he was focusing on "peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians" rather than "soundbites".[131]
^The Israeli NGOBtselem has stated the famine is a direct outcome of Israeli policy: "This reality is not a byproduct of war, but a direct result of Israel's declared policy. Residents now depend entirely on food supplies from outside Gaza, as they can no longer produce almost any food themselves. Most cultivated fields have been destroyed, and accessing open areas during the war is dangerous in any case. Bakeries, factories and food warehouses have been bombed or shut down due to lack of basic supplies, fuel and electricity."[95]
^abc"Light at the End of Their Tunnels? Hamas and the Arab Uprisings"(PDF).International Crisis Group. 14 August 2012. p. 38, note 283.Archived(PDF) from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved6 August 2024.The prime minister is comfortable with limited economic growth in Gaza, particularly as a way to modify Hamas's urge to get into trouble. We still want there to be a discrepancy between economic life in Gaza and the West Bank, but we no longer feel it needs to be so large.
^ab"Gaza Up Close".Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement. 2023. Archived fromthe original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved6 August 2024.
Anna Ball,'Impossible Intimacies,' in Anastasia Valassopoulos (ed.)Arab Cultural Studies: History, Politics and the Popular,Routledge 2013 pp71-91 p.73: "...Gaza Strip Barrier, a structure that has sealed Gaza's border with Israel and has led to Gaza's description as ″the world's largest open-air prison",
^"Blockade of Gaza Strip".Britannica.Archived from the original on 14 November 2023. Retrieved17 October 2023.In autumn 2007 Israel declared the Gaza Strip under Hamas a hostile entity and approved a series of sanctions that included power cuts, heavily restricted imports, and border closures. In January 2008, facing sustained rocket assaults into its southern settlements, Israel broadened its sanctions
